


She Was A Skater Girl

by BritHistorian



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Boutique, F/F, Makeover, School Dances, Skateboarding, skate shop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22367773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritHistorian/pseuds/BritHistorian
Summary: Sua wants Dami to go with her to the school formal.  Dami doesn't want to go.  Can Dami's fairy godmothers - in the form of a skateshop owner and a seamstress - change her mind?
Relationships: Han Dong | Handong/Lee Siyeon, Kim Bora | SuA/Lee Yoobin | Dami
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46
Collections: dreamcatcher rarepairs 2k20





	She Was A Skater Girl

The bell rang as Dami walked into the skate shop. She stashed her board under the register, put on her name tag, and clocked in. Her boss, Siyeon, stuck her head out of the office. "Hey Dami!" she called. "Not much to do today - we got a couple of packages that need to be opened, checked, and the contents put on the shelves. Looks like it should start raining any minute now, so I'm not expecting many customers today."

Dami silently waved her understanding and Siyeon rolled back into her office, already lifting her earphones back into place. Dami lifted the first box onto the counter and started cutting it open. She looked at the stack of boxes behind the counter waiting for her attention. "I don't know where Siyeon gets off calling seven boxes 'a couple,' but it's better than standing around with nothing to do."

Three hours later all the boxes were unpacked, the rain was pouring down, and true to Siyeon's prediction, there hadn't been any customers. She sat down on the stool behind the register and started flipping through the current issue of Skater Girl magazine. Suddenly, Siyeon was standing next to her, making her jump and drop the magazine.

"What are you, part cat?" she exclaimed, as she bent down to pick up the magazine. "How do you even walk without making any noise?"

She shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess. Speaking of walking, you've been thumping around all day like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders. Anything you want to talk about?" She took a custom skateboard deck she was working on down from a shelf, grabbed her paints, and started working. After a couple of minutes of silence from Dami, she looked over at her and raised her eyebrows. "Cat got your tongue?"

Dami tossed the magazine down on the counter and pulled her hat down tighter on her head. "No."

Siyeon went went back to painting, not saying anything. She knew if she let the silence linger long enough, eventually Dami would start to talk about whatever was bothering her. Or else she wouldn't. Siyeon had just about decided that Dami wasn't going to talk when she heard Dami say. "Fine, yes, there's a problem. But it's nothing anyone can do anything about."

Siyeon put aside the deck, closed the paint, and cleaned her brush. She leaned back against the counter, waiting to see if Dami would go on.

"There's a formal dance at school in a couple of weeks. . ." Dami trailed off at the end of her sentence. 

After a long pause, Siyeon filled in the blank: "And Sua wants you to go."

Dami nodded. "She just doesn't get it. I spend all day at school around those people. None of them like me. They tease me and call me names. Why would I want to spend more time around them than I have to?"

Siyeon shook her head. "You don't get it, do you? This isn't about you at all."

Dami's head flew up. "How can you say that? I'm the one who'll have to go there."

Siyeon shrugged. "You are, but so is Sua." She looked around the shop and spotted her phone charging at the outlet under the register. "Can you reach down under the register and get my phone for me?"

Dami reached down and unplugged the phone. She held it out to Siyeon, who made no move to take it.

"Have you ever looked at my lock screen?" Siyeon asked, putting her hands in her pockets.

Dami shook her head. "No. Why would I?"

A mysterious smile played over Siyeon's face. "Take a look at it."

Dami looked down at the phone. The picture on the lock screen was taken in front of the door of an elaborately decorated Gothic church. It featured two women in white wedding dresses. She squinted at the picture to try to make out their faces. The one on the right was definitely Handong, which meant the one on the left must be - "Oh my God! Is that you in a dress?" Dami squealed.

Siyeon reached out and took the phone from her. "That was me in a dress. I would have been just as happy to get married in front of a judge down at city hall, but Handong insisted she wanted a church wedding, at that church, with her friends and family there. She wanted them to see the choice she was making. She wanted them to see me."

"Huh." Dami nodded, not really seeing the point of this story.

Siyeon reached out and tapped Dami on the side of the head with her fingertips. "C'mon, Dami! Use your head for something more than just a helmet rest! Sua's a big school nerd. All these people that you can't stand, they form a big part of her life whether she likes them or not. She's probably - no, scratch that - she's definitely had to deal with guys asking her out. She wants you to be there so that she can show you off. So she can say 'You see? This is what it takes to get my attention.'"

"But-" Dami sputtered, "I don't have anything to wear to a dance like that! I can't just show up in a T-shirt and shorts. I'd have to have a nice dress, and I'd have to buy makeup, and do something with my hair. I don't want Sua to be embarrassed to be seen with me!"

"I already thought of that," Siyeon said. "Did you forget what my wife does for a living?"

Dami had forgotten, as it wasn't something that impacted her life much - Handong ran a boutique down at the opposite end of the strip mall from the skate shop.

When Dami looked up, Siyeon had already dialed her phone and Handong had apparently answered. "Hey babe," Siyeon was saying into the phone, "How's it going? I'm guessing the rain's keeping your customers away too? . . . Good . . . No, not good because I don't want you to have customers. Good because I need a favor . . . No, not that kind of favor . . . You're so bad . . ." Siyeon walked off into the office, talking the whole way.

A few minutes later, Siyeon came back out. "Okay, then, it's all settled. You need to go down to Handong's shop so she can measure you, then the day of the dance you go down and she'll put you in the dress and do your hair and makeup."

Dami gulped. "Siyeon, I can't afford that. You know what I make here, and I can't ask my mom for money. . ." She slumped back on the stool.

"Then it's a good thing Handong's not going to be asking you to pay for it," Siyeon said, grabbing a Coke out of the fridge. "She can rent out the dress once you're done with it, and she's doing your hair and makeup as a favor to me. Now get down there so you can get measured."

* * *

The day of the dance arrived. Dami skated up to the skate shop at 4:00 for her usual shift. Siyeon met her as she walked in the door. "Go home and get a shower," Siyeon said, "then get down to Handong's shop by 5."

"But the dance doesn't start until 8," Dami said. "I've still got time to put in some work before then."

Siyeon shook her head. "There's nothing here that's that urgent today, and Handong was very insistent that I have you there by 5. You don't rush an artist - you know that. Does Sua know to pick up you from Handong's?"

Dami nodded. "She said she'd pick me up there at 7:45."

Siyeon smiled. "If Handong's done with you at 7:45. . . you two might end up being fashionably late for the dance. Now get going."

Dami rushed home, showered, then walked to Handong's shop, walking in the door at precisely 5:00. The air-conditioned shop felt like heaven after the heat outside.

"Ah, you're right on time," Handong said with a smile. I think you're going to like what I've prepared for you." She walked into the back and came out with a dress like none Dami had ever seen before. It was a dark purple dress with a elaborate pattern of flowers and scrollwork worked out in a lighter purple. It was trimmed with purple satin ribbons at the throat and waist. It had bell sleeves lined with the same purple satin. Dami's jaw dropped.

Handong laughed. "Your facial expression is all the thanks I need!"

"It's beautiful," Dami said, "I've never seen anything like it!"

"I should think not," Handong said smugly. "I designed it myself, with you in mind. In fact, I've decided you can keep it - I don't know how many times you'll have occasion to wear it, but I can't imagine seeing anyone else in it."

Dami's eyes grew wide. "Wow! Thank you! That's so kind!"

Handong smiled at her. "Go into the dressing room and put it on, so I can get started on your hair and makeup. Your shoes are already in the dressing room waiting for you."

Dami took the dress and headed into the dressing room. Hanging the dress on the hook behind the door, she opened up the shoe box sitting on the bench. Inside were a pair of purple socks that matched the dress and the shiniest pair of patent leather oxfords that Dami had ever seen.

"I didn't figure there was any chance of getting you into anything with a heel," Handong called from outside, "but I figured those would work with the dress. Who knows - maybe you'll start a trend!"

"Maybe so," Dami agreed with a laugh. She put on the dress, then the socks and shoes. She looked at herself in the mirror and hardly recognized herself. She twirled experimentally and loved the way the dress flared out as she spun. She came out of the dressing room to find Handong waiting for her, holding a shopping bag. Handong gasped when she first stepped out. "It looks every bit as beautiful as I had imagined!" She held out the shopping bag to Dami. "You can put your other clothes in here, then we'll head into the back and get started on your hair and makeup.

In the back of the shop, Handong had a miniature salon set up. She whisked Dami into the chair and got straight to work. The makeup went on in no time at all - somehow Handong managed to pick a foundation that matched Dami's coloration on the very first try. She then put on simple pink lipstick, black eyeliner, and a hint of eyeshadow that suggested the light purple of the dress. Then she turned Dami away from the mirror.

"This is the part that's going to take a while," Handong said. She started combing Dami's hair, then sectioning it off. Some sections she twisted, others she braided. Then she started pinning them up, interlacing them, holding some of them in place with clips and others just by the intertwining of the braids. Just when Dami thought her neck was going to snap from holding her head so still for so long, Handong announced that she was done, and turned her back toward the mirror.

Dami was amazed when she saw what Handong had done with her hair. She kept her hair cut in a shoulder length bob and typically just threw it back into a ponytail so it would be out of her way, but Handong had completely transformed her hair. The pattern of braids and swirls in her updo echoed the scrollwork and floral pattern of the dress, and a handful of purple satin flowers scattered throughout completed the effect. Dami shivered, then pinched herself to be sure she wasn't dreaming. 

"Come see yourself in the full length mirror," Handong said, becking Dami to come over.

Dami crossed the room and looked at herself in the mirror. She could barely believe it! She hoped Sua liked it as much as she did. "It's like. . . what's the word? Sua had a word for it. . ." she stumbled over the words, trying to find the right word. "It's like a meta- . . . meta- . . ."

"Metamorphosis," Sua said, walking into the room and looking Dami up and down. Dami looked over at Sua. She was wearing a simple black dress with purple trim that matched Dami's dress. Sua was actually slightly shorter than Dami, but the heels on the purple shoes she was wearing raised her up until she was about 3 inches taller.

Dami's mouth suddenly went dry. "You look amazing!" she finally said.

"So do you," Sua said.

"I want to get a picture of you two together," Handong said. She led them to the front of the shop, arranged them just so, and snapped the picture. Just then the shop door opened.

"Send me a copy of that," Siyeon said as she walked in.

"What?" Dami protested.

Siyeon laughed. "Hey, you got to see me in a dress. Turnabout's fair play."

Just then Dami happened to notice the clock on the wall behind the register. It was barely 6:00. She turned to Handong. "I thought you said this was going to take forever!"

Sua laughed. "I talked to Handong and asked her to get you ready a couple of hours early before the dance. I want to take you out to dinner."

Dami looked down at her dress, then over at Sua's, then back at herself. "But there's nowhere in town to go that's appropriate if you're dressed this nice."

Sua smiled at her. "There's Chez Minx."

Dami scoffed. "I can't afford Chez Minx."

Sua shook her head. "No, but I can." Seeing Dami about to protest, she added "And I want to take you there."

Dami opened her mouth to protest, but then noticed Siyeon holding up her phone and pointing at the lock screen. She nodded slightly, then said "Then I'd love for you to take me."

Smiling brightly, Sua took Dami's hand and led her out of the boutique.

* * *

The next day, Dami was fifteen minutes late for her shift at the skate shop. Siyeon looked up from checking out a customer, noticed that Dami still had her hair in the updo from the night before, and smiled.

After the customer left the shop, Siyeon looked at Dami and said "So I take it last night was okay?"

Dami's eyes lit up. "It was so much better than 'okay" - Sua made me feel like a frickin' princess!"

Siyeon leaned on the counter. "That good, huh?"

Dami nodded enthusiastically. "Chez Minx was amazing - I've never been anywhere like that! I can understand now why people go to super-fancy restaurants. And then we went to the dance! I never knew that Sua could dance like that. And I caught all of the boys and some of the girls looking jealously at me for being with her.'

Siyeon nodded. "Knowing that you're with the girl everyone wants to be with can be quite an ego boost. So what did you do after the dance? I can't imagine you just went home and went to sleep."

Dami shook her head. "Then we drove down and parked by the lake, and we talked all night and. . . you know." She blushed. "Then we went to Bill's Diner for breakfast and coffee, then Sua drove me home to change out of my dress, then she dropped me off here."

Siyeon laughed. "So that explains how your hair is still up from last night. . . So, any big plans for after work today?"

Dami shrugged. "I had wanted to try to come up with something special I could do for Sua - maybe cook her dinner - but she said she had one more surprise left for me, so I guess I'll have to wait and see what she's got planned first."

Siyeon looked over Dami's shoulder at someone walking into the store. "It doesn't look like you'll have to wait long."

Dami spun around and saw Sua standing in the shop doorway. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and a pair of skate shoes, and had her hair up in a ponytail. Everything she wore was newer and fit better than anything Dami would wear to the shop, but it was obvious who her inspiration had been. Dami was struck speechless - she had never seen Sua dressed like this before, and she'd never ever known Sua to come into the skate shop before.

Before Dami had a chance to regain her voice, Sua looked down at the ground, then up at Dami, blushed slightly and asked "Can you recommend a good skateboard for a girl who's just starting out?"

Siyeon smiled and headed for her office. "I'll let you handle this," she said. "Just give me a yell if any other customers come in."


End file.
